Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 426

Chambers's Edinburgh Journal,
No. 426

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Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 426 Volume 17, New Series,
February 28, 1852
Author: Various
Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers
Release Date: October 27, 2005 [EBook #16953]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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EDINBURGH JOURNAL ***

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CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS,
EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,'
'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
NO. 426. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1852. PRICE
1½d.

TIME'S REVIEW OF CHARACTER.
ROBESPIERRE.
Some characters are a puzzle to history, and none is more so than that
of Robespierre. According to popular belief, this personage was a
blood-thirsty monster, a vulgar tyrant, who committed the most
unheard-of enormities, with the basely selfish object of raising himself
to supreme power--of becoming the Cromwell of the Revolution.
Considering that Robespierre was for five years--1789 to 1794--a prime
leader in the political movements in France; that for a length of time he
was personally concerned in sending from forty to fifty heads to the
scaffold per diem; and that the Reign of Terror ceased immediately on
his overthrow--it is not surprising that his character is associated with
all that is villainous and detestable. Nevertheless, as the obscurities of
the great revolutionary drama clear up, a strange suspicion begins to be
entertained, that the popular legend respecting Robespierre is in a
considerable degree fallacious; nay, it is almost thought that this man
was, in reality, a most kind-hearted, simple, unambitious, and
well-disposed individual--a person who, to say the least of it, deeply
deplored the horrors in which considerations of duty had unhappily
involved him. To attempt an unravelment of these contradictions, let us
call up the phantom of this mysterious personage, and subject him to
review.
To understand Robespierre, it is necessary to understand the French
Revolution. The proximate cause of that terrible convulsion was, as is
well known, an utter disorder in all the functions of the state, and more
particularly in the finances, equivalent to national bankruptcy. That

matters might have been substantially patched up by judicious
statesmanship, no one doubts; but that a catastrophe, sooner or later,
was unavoidable, seems to be equally certain. The mind of France was
rotten; the principles of society were undermined. As regards religion,
there was a universal scepticism, of which the best literature of the day
was the exponent; but this unbelief was greatly strengthened by the
scandalous abuses in the ecclesiastical system. It required no depth of
genius to point out that the great principles of brotherly love, humility,
equality, liberty, promulgated as part and parcel of the Christian
dispensation eighteen centuries previously, had no practical efficacy so
far as France was concerned. Instead of equality before God and the
law, the humbler classes were feudal serfs, without any appeal from the
cruel oppressions to which they were exposed. In the midst of gloom,
Rousseau's vague declamations on the rights of man fell like a ray of
light. A spark was communicated, which kindled a flame in the bosoms
of the more thoughtful and enthusiastic. An astonishing impulse was
almost at once given to investigation. The philosopher had his
adherents all over France. Viewed as a species of prophet, he was,
properly speaking, a madman, who in his ravings had glanced on the
truth, but only glanced. Among men of sense, his ornate declamations
concerning nature and reason would have excited little more attention
than that which is usually given to poetic and speculative fancies.
Amidst an impulsive and lively people, unaccustomed to the practical
consideration and treatment of abuses, there arose a cry to destroy, root
up; to sweep away all preferences and privileges; to bring down the
haughty, and raise the depressed; to let all men be free and equal, all
men being brothers. Such is the origin of the three words--liberty,
equality, and fraternity, which were caught up as the charter of social
intercourse. It is for ever to be regretted that this explosion of sentiment
was so utterly destructive in its character; for therein has it inflicted
immense wrong on what is abstractedly true and beautiful. At first, as
will be remembered, the revolutionists did not aim at establishing a
republic, but that form of government necessarily grew out of their
hallucinations. Without pausing to consider that a nation of
emancipated serfs were unprepared to take on themselves the duties